


A Blessing In Disguise

by beksdragon



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-14
Updated: 2013-05-14
Packaged: 2017-12-11 20:56:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,367
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/803191
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/beksdragon/pseuds/beksdragon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An AU in which Merlin and Arthur swap bodies and the chaos, betrayal, fighting, acceptance and secrets that entail.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Blessing In Disguise

Arthur held his arm out in front Merlin, one hand gripping his sword and the other clutching a handful of Merlin’s shirt.

 

“You really have no idea, do you?” the hooded man in front of them said, “One day, Arthur Pendragon, you will know how much the people around you care for you.”

 

Merlin glanced at Arthur, trying to figure out how to use magic without him noticing. There was only a finite number of times he could be conveniently knocked out.

 

“Show yourself!” Arthur bellowed.

 

The sorcerer only clasped his hands together and muttered something inaudible to the prince and his manservant under his breath. When Arthur saw his eyes turn golden, he lunged forward, only to fall onto the ground when the warlock disappeared in a whirlwind of misty air in front of them. Merlin scarpered forward to help Arthur to his feet, both men surveying their surroundings quickly.

 

“Where did he go?” Arthur asked, his back to Merlin and his sword out in front of him.

 

“He could be anywhere,” Merlin answered quietly, “He’s probably gone now.”

 

He reached out in front of him with his magic, letting out a small sigh of relief when he couldn’t see anyone in the forest around them.

 

“We should get back to Camelot, Arthur,” he continued. Arthur nodded, still on edge and looking around.

 

Their quest had turned up no answers and done nothing except put Arthur in a truly foul mood. Merlin ignored him for most of the journey back to Camelot but by the time home was in sight he was fed up with Arthur’s incessant moaning.

 

“Wretched sorcerer,” Arthur complained, “I don’t know _why_ he couldn’t have just given me a straight answer and be done with it.”

 

“Maybe he got sick of listening to you too,” Merlin mumbled.

 

“Shut up, Merlin.”

 

“Oh, that’s rich coming from you! You’ve just complained all the way back.”

 

“ _Mer_ lin…”

 

“You’re such a clotpole.”

 

“ _Merlin_.”

 

“I know, I know. ‘Shut up, Merlin.’”

 

Arthur rolled his eyes and returned his attention to riding. He had Merlin put the horses away while he reported back to his father. By the time he was back in his room, Merlin was waiting with a change of clothes.

“Didn’t you enjoy today?” Merlin asked, a playful glint in his eyes as he took in Arthur’s expression.

 

“Shut up, Merlin.”

 

“You seemed to enjoy protecting me.”

 

Arthur glared in Merlin’s direction, but Merlin seemingly ignored the warning and continued to wind him up.

 

“You haven’t thanked me for saving you from that boar either,” Merlin continued, “Don’t I even get a hug?”

 

Merlin grinned when he ducked out of the way of the plate that was thrown his way. He opened his arms and watched in amusement as Arthur marched over, quickly turning and running through the door at the last minute.

 

“Just you wait until tomorrow, Merlin!” Arthur called after him before retiring to his bed.

 

Arthur fell into an uneasy sleep, and so was angry when he was woken by the sunlight shining into his face. He was just about to shout profanities at Merlin when he heard Gaius’ voice.

 

“Up! You’ll be late for Arthur.”

 

“What _are_ you talking about, Gaius?” Arthur asked, pushing himself up and squinting through tired eyes at the physician, “And where is Merlin?”

 

Gaius looked at him in confusion and opened his mouth to reply, only to be cut off by a familiar voice shouting his name. _His_ voice, Arthur recognised. His eyes widened when he saw himself burst into the room and, before he could even register what was happening through his shock, he was out cold. Gaius looked between the two young men in silence.

 

“Gaius…” Arthur, or rather, Merlin said slowly, “I know this is going to sound hard to believe but I’m not Arthur. I’m Merlin. That- that’s Arthur,” he explained, pointing to his own body passed out on his bed.

 

The old man took a moment to take this information in before turning to Merlin. “What on _earth_ have you done this time?”

 

Merlin did his best to hide his offense, “ _I_ didn’t do anything!”

 

“Then what is the meaning of this?” Gaius asked, “This is dangerous, Ar- Merlin. Arthur could find out about your magic.”

 

Merlin felt his face – or, rather, Arthur’s face – drain of colour.

 

“I know. He’s going to have to find out about it, I can’t see any other way out of this.”

 

“But Merlin-”

 

“Gaius, the only way to fix this is using magic. Clearly that’s how it came about.”

“Who would do this?”

 

Merlin sighed, exasperated, and dropped into the small wooden chair by the window. He thought over what had happened the previous day.

 

“There was a sorcerer,” he recalled, “In the forest. He told Arthur that one day he’d know how much people care about him.”

 

“Maybe this was his way of showing him how much you do for him.”

 

“Yeah, well, it’s a stupid way of showing him. It could get me _killed_.”

 

“Yes,” Gaius agreed glumly, “That’s what I’m afraid of.”

 

Merlin stood up with a new sense of determination, “I’ll look through the books to see if there’s any way for us to fix this without having Arthur wake up. You, don’t let anyone know we’re here. If anyone asks tell them we went to search for the sorcerer again.”

 

“You might have to do that yet,” Gaius pointed out.

 

Merlin frowned, “I know.”

 

He quickly left to gather the books he needed from the other room. Gaius looked down at Arthur, currently in Merlin’s body, and pursed his lips.

 

“If Arthur doesn’t kill me or that sorcerer first, I might kill him myself,” Merlin ranted as he returned to his room, “It’ll be a miracle if I get through this alive.”

 

Gaius laid a hand on Merlin’s shoulder and forced a smile, “Good luck, Merlin. Let me know if Arthur wakes.”

 

Merlin nodded and turned to the pile of books he had put on the table. Gaius left him alone to find a solution. Though Merlin would have welcomed Gaius’ help with open arms, he knew he had to handle this alone. He would never ask Gaius to put his life at risk to perform a magic as powerful as he knew it’d have to be to switch them back, but he feared a simple potion would not solve this problem.

 

He didn’t hear Arthur wake up behind him and jumped when he heard him groan.

 

“Merlin?”

 

Merlin braced himself for Arthur’s reaction as he turned around. When his eyes met Arthur’s – which were actually his own eyes – he slumped. Arthur looked _furious_.

 

“What is going on?” he asked.

 

“Let me just get Gaius,” Merlin said, avoiding giving him an answer.

 

“Just tell me what’s happening,” Arthur demanded as Merlin got to his feet – as he got up – no, Merlin – he didn’t even know anymore, “Tell me!”

 

He felt anger pulsing through him and, before he could control it, he felt a strange feeling shoot through his veins and Merlin – or himself… no, it had to be Merlin – was thrown across the room, landing with an ‘ooft’ on the wooden floor.

 

“What was that for?” he complained, rubbing his bum as he clambered to his feet.

 

“Tell me what’s going on. Now. Why are you me? And how did that happen? It felt… Did I do that? Merlin, am I you? So you did that?” he thought for a second, “Was that magic?” he felt disgust bubbling to his surface, “Merlin, why do I have magic?”

 

“I-” Merlin started, but stopped when he realised there was no way out of this.

 

“Wait,” Arthur narrowed his eyes, “Do _you_ have magic?”

 

“Arthur-”

 

“I _trusted_ you!” Arthur yelled, “How could you? What was your plan, hmm? Get close to me and kill me in the night?! Well?” he demanded, ignoring Gaius’ arrival, “Was this your plan? Swap us around and take my place yourself? Kill me while you were at it?”

 

“Arthur, please-”

 

“I’ll have you hanged! I’ll have you burned!”

 

“Arthur-”

 

“Don’t say my name,” he warned, “Change us back. Now.”

 

Merlin looked at Gaius helplessly.

 

“Sire,” Gaius started calmly, “He can’t.”

 

“What do you mean ‘he can’t’? Are you in on this too?” he asked, rage pulsing through him so much that he was beginning to see red.

 

“No! No,” Gaius said, his hands out in innocence, “Something happened to you two. The sorcerer you faced in the forest. He must have switched your bodies. As you, Merlin has no powers.”

 

Arthur was quiet for a moment, “You knew about this? Have you _both_ been conspiring against me?”

 

“Oh, for God’s sake, Arthur,” Merlin snapped, finally annoyed enough to speak out, “Do you think if I meant you harm I would have saved your sorry arse all those times? Do you think I’d have helped you fight against the evil of magic if I meant to use it against you? You are _such_ an _idiot_!”

 

Arthur blinked, shocked into silence.

 

“I’ve only ever used magic for good. For _you_! And one day I may be able to use it openly but now isn’t the time to debate the uses of magic and whether it is good or bad, we need to find a way to change back.”

 

The room fell into a thick silence while everybody calmed down. Arthur ran Merlin’s words through in his mind once, twice, thrice… he kept going over the situation, what was said, and his anger began to subside.

 

“You kept it from me all this time,” he said eventually, his voice even and calm, “Why?”

 

“Why do you think?” Merlin replied, his shoulders slumped, “You’d have me killed. If not you then your father would.”

 

Arthur frowned, “You’re not going to be killed, Merlin.”

 

“I’m not?” Merlin asked, allowing himself to be hopeful.

 

“Of course not. I can’t say I’m comfortable with… this… magic thing,” he said carefully, “But if what you’re saying has any truth to it then we can deal with it later. But if you’re lying to me…” he trailed off, his tone clearly portraying the unspoken warning to Merlin, who lifted his hands up in surrender.

 

“I’m not lying, I swear to you. Arthur, I would never-”

 

“Alright,” Arthur cut in, not in the mood to listen to Merlin’s useless chatter, “I believe you. Now change us back.”

 

Merlin looked the guiltiest Arthur had ever seen him, even with Arthur’s face contorted into the guilty expression.

 

“I can’t. It’s like Gaius said. I’m you, you don’t have any magic.”

 

“Then what do we do?”

 

“Well, we might be able to fix it with my magic.”

 

“But you don’t have any.”

 

“Not anymore, as you, but that means that-” Merlin sighed, “That means that you do.”

 

Arthur stared at him blankly for a moment, “I do?”

 

Merlin nodded, “Yes.”

 

“I have magic. I have _your_ magic.”

 

“And it’s very powerful,” Gaius added.

 

“Let’s not add to the list of things I could be killed for, shall we?” Merlin chuckled nervously.

 

“So I can fix this?” Arthur asked, ignoring that input.

 

“I… I don’t know yet,” Merlin answered honestly, “Maybe. I’m still trying to find a spell.”

 

“You say the sorcerer from the forest did this?” Arthur asked Gaius as Merlin turned back to his books.

 

“We believe so. There’s no other explanation for it.”

 

“Is this what he meant about me seeing how much people care for me?”

 

Gaius shrugged, “Possibly.”

 

“Well it was a stupid thing to do. He could have gotten Merlin killed.”

 

“That’s what I said,” Merlin muttered.

 

“Maybe we should go to find him?”

 

“Where would we even start?” Merlin asked, still flicking through his book, “We have no idea whether he lives in the forest or not, where he could possibly be or even who he is. He’d be impossible to find.”

 

Arthur pursed his lips and sat on the edge of the bed. His brain was still trying to process all of this information. He’d always been taught that magic was a force of evil yet here was his most trusted and loyal friend and servant, confessing to having his own magic.

 

“Merlin,” he said, waiting until Merlin had looked up and made eye contact before continuing, “Once this is over I have a lot of questions for you and you’re going to have to answer them all.”

 

Although he was frowning, Merlin nodded, “I understand.”

 

Arthur watched him turn back to his book, thankful when it only took a short time for him to get up and walk over to Arthur with the book. He pointed to some writing, a foreign language by the look of it, and glanced up at Gaius.

 

“This might work. It switches bodies, rather than being a spell to switch people back, but it could work both ways.”

 

“It’s worth a try,” Gaius agreed.

 

“So what do I have to do?” Arthur asked.

 

Merlin turned to face him properly. “You have to feel the magic, you have to project it. When you read the words, direct the spell at me, hopefully that will switch me with you, and not with Gaius.”

 

Arthur huffed out some air, “Are you sure I can do this?”

 

“I know you can,” Merlin smiled, “Just reach inside and embrace the magic, don’t fight it.”

 

He nodded and took a deep breath, looking down at the book Merlin had thrust into his hands. He did as Merlin said, and tried to reach deep down into Merlin’s being and grab the magic while he shakily read the words.

 

“Wait,” Merlin stopped him, “You have to read it clearly. I know this is frightening and strange for you, Arthur, and I’m sorry I’m making you do this, but for the spell to work you have to believe what you’re saying.”

 

Arthur took a deep breath and closed his eyes briefly, preparing himself for what he was about to do. He put his logical thoughts to one side, put the parts of his brain that were screaming at him that this was _wrong_ to one side, and concentrated on the task in front of him. Before he even knew what he was doing, he was reading the words loudly and as clear as he could, reaching down to embrace the magic as Merlin had told him to. He quickly found that he didn’t need to grab the magic, it was already surging through him, into the tips of his fingers and all through his mind, wrapping itself around every part of Arthur he could feel. Merlin smiled when he saw his eyes turn amber and readied himself to be transported back into his own body.

 

“I don’t understand,” he said, “It didn’t work?”

 

“Maybe you have to wait,” Gaius suggested, gaining the attention of both men, “It wasn’t immediate yesterday, it worked while you were sleeping. Maybe you have to wait this time as well.”

 

Merlin nodded, “Maybe.”

 

“We don’t _have_ time to wait,” Arthur pointed out.

 

Gaius shrugged, “I’m afraid you may have to, sire.”

 

He gave in and accepted that all they could do was wait. Gaius left them alone to get on with his own work. Merlin made himself comfortable behind Arthur, who stayed at the foot of the bed.

 

“You said you’d saved my life,” Arthur said eventually, “Tell me.”

 

Merlin sighed, “Well, I don’t know. There’s been a lot of times. I’ve fought griffins-”

 

“I thought that was Lancelot,” Arthur cut in.

 

“Well, he used a magical weapon. My magical weapon. Then there’s been witches and warlocks, I helped fight a few bandits.”

 

“I’d have noticed if you’d fought any of the bandits.”

 

“Clearly not,” Merlin quipped, “I got poisoned for you once, but I suppose you made up for that by getting the cure. I cured you that time you were dying, using magic. I’ve fought a few rogue knights for you as well. Those stone gargoyle things were probably the easiest to get rid of. I revealed a few things that you were too blind to see so that you could fight those, like the troll and the snakes on Valiant’s shield. I helped get that sword to kill immortal beings with – that was forged in a dragon’s breath.”

 

“Forged in a dragon’s breath?” Arthur asked incredulously.

 

“Oh, yeah, and I got rid of Killgarrah. The Great Dragon,” he added when Arthur turned around to ask who Killgarrah was, “I’m a Dragonlord.”

 

“My God,” Arthur muttered, “Are any of my victories my own?”

 

Merlin chuckled, “Some of them, yes.”

 

“You really have had your work cut out, haven’t you?”

 

“I knew that the magical community had a grudge against your father but I wasn’t prepared for all of that,” he replied honestly.

 

Arthur laughed, “I don’t think anybody would have been.”

 

Merlin studied Arthur for a while. It was strange trying to read his own expressions.

 

“So you’re not mad?”

 

“I don’t think so,” Arthur answered, “But obviously you still can’t tell anyone about your magic.”

 

“No. Of course not.”

 

“I promise,” Arthur said, turning to look at Merlin properly, “That you won’t have to live in fear anymore. When I become king, with your help, maybe we can show the people that some magic is good, and it will not be outlawed anymore.”

 

Merlin grinned, “I’d like that very much.”

 

Arthur smiled and nodded.

 

They both drifted into sleep not long after that, Merlin propped up against the wall and Arthur sprawled out at the bottom of the bed, his legs draped over the edge. Gaius was the one who roused them the next morning, eager to see whether the spell had worked. Arthur groaned, rubbing his back and looked down to the bottom of the bed, where Merlin was trying to ignore Gaius telling him to wake up. He promptly kicked his shoulder.

 

“Ow!” Merlin said, sitting up to get out of Arthur’s reach, “What was that for?”

 

“Being a lazy, good-for-nothing toad of a servant.”

 

Merlin scrunched his face up in annoyance, “I think we both know I do more than my fair share of work.”

 

Arthur smiled, realising that he was actually looking at Merlin and not at himself. It took a minute for Merlin to realise the spell had worked but, when he did, he grinned and beamed up at Gaius.

  
“We did it!” he laughed, “Yes!”

 

“Finally, I get to sleep in my own bed again,” Arthur said, “Your bed is very uncomfortable, Merlin.”

 

“It’s not,” Merlin replied defensively.

 

Arthur raised his eyebrows, “I’m sure I can get you a more comfortable mattress.” He got off the bed and stretched, patting Merlin’s shoulder on the way out. “Have the morning off, Merlin. I’m only going to go back to bed.”

 

Merlin raised his eyebrows, “Who are you and what have you done with Prince Arthur?”

 

Arthur laughed, “Shut up, Merlin.”

 

“Nope, there he is.”

 

“Unless you’d rather work all morning?”

 

“I think I’ll take the option of not doing any work, thanks.”

 

“Which brings us back to you being lazy.”

 

“At least I’m not a… a dollop-head.”

 

“Just because I’m not going to punish you for having magic doesn’t mean I won’t punish you for talking to me like that,” Arthur reminded him as he left.

 

Merlin grinned at Gaius, “I did it. I don’t have to pretend anymore.”

 

“Be careful, Merlin. Don’t forget that the king still can’t find out.”

 

“I don’t care,” Merlin said, his grin staying plastered on his face, “Because Arthur knows who I truly am and he _accepted_ me.”

 

Gaius allowed himself to smile, “It’s certainly a victory.”

 

“And I’ve got my own body back. As much as I like Arthur, I’d rather not be stuck in that body forever.”

 

Gaius laughed and ruffled Merlin’s hair.

 

“Well done, Merlin.”

 

Merlin smiled and pushed Gaius’ hand away. Finally he could be himself around Arthur. It felt like a weight off his shoulders, a giant relief. He could stop smiling! Now he could truly begin to help Arthur unite Albion and repair the broken bonds between the magic and non-magic communities, and do it all while standing by Arthur’s side.


End file.
